[Evidence for standard surgical procedures: appendicitis, diverticulitis and cholecystitis].

BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis, cholecystitis and sigmoid diverticulitis are the most common inflammatory visceral surgical emergencies. According to the principles of evidence-based medicine, treatment methods and surgical indications should be constantly questioned and validated by high-quality clinical studies.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and classify the current evidence on surgical treatment of acute appendicitis, cholecystitis and sigmoid diverticulitis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Targeted literature search in Medline, the Cochrane Library and study registers (clinicaltrials.gov).

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The indications for surgery are changing due to increasing numbers of high-quality clinical studies. Conservative treatment seems to be feasible in the early stages. In contrast, many surgical steps have not yet been sufficiently validated. Furthermore, there is a great need for high-quality, prospective randomized clinical trials, so that promotion of studies and the study culture in surgery should continue to be of greatest interest.